The Devil's Fruit
by Pierrot twixt Columbine
Summary: SPOILERS for Naruto manga up to chap. 197. Chapter 5 up: Sakura and Sasuke are ready to bring Naruto home, but what if Naruto doesn't want to go back? Team 8 makes welcoming presents, Akatsuki follows the scent, and a special ninja gets left behind.
1. Two Paths Diverge

Title: The Devil's Fruit

Rating: PG

Type: Series, slightly AU

Warnings: Some violence, MASSIVE SPOILERS for the Naruto manga up to chap. 197.  The timeline picks up a little bit after where the manga left off (which is why it's classified as AU).

Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters are not mine.  This story and its plot _is_.

Uzumaki Naruto was terrified.

The _thing_ that had stepped out of that coffin bore no resemblance to the Sasuke he knew.  Sure it was the same body wearing the same clothes as Sasuke had, and the face bore the same features—Naruto recognized those familiar features, even through the obscene black markings that swarmed Sasuke's face—but the eyes were completely different.  Blood red and full of hate, they were the eyes of a much older man.  They were Itachi's eyes.

"Sasuke," he finally managed to breathe.  

The thing that was once Sasuke glared at him from its blood-red eyes.  Naruto felt his knees turn to jelly as he breathed in the miasma of chakra and killing intent that gusted off of Sasuke.  "Go back, Naruto."

With that, Sasuke turned his back to Naruto and started to walk away.  They were close to the border now.  A ten minute walk would take Sasuke beyond Konoha's jurisdiction and to Orochimaru's side.  Swallowing his fear, Naruto yelled at the other boy.  "I promised Sakura-chan that I'd bring you back."

Sasuke halted and turned, looking at Naruto out of the corner of his eyes.  His lips curved into a smile.  "Now why would you do something like that, Naruto?"

"Because I'm bringing you back to Sakura-chan, no matter what!"  Naruto clenched his hands into fists as Sasuke turned around fully to face him.  "I'll never take back my words, Sasuke.  That's my ninja way!"

Sasuke laughed at him.  It was genuine laughter, the kind that made Sasuke throw his head back and bellow out his mirth in guffaws that echoed through the forest and frightened the birds from their nests.  When he was finished, Sasuke had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard.  "Oh, is that so, Naruto?  You'll take me back to Sakura-chan?  Now tell me Naruto: just _how_ do you propose to do that?"

Even through the stupid panic of fear, Naruto felt anger rising in him, spreading through his body like boiling water in his veins.  How dare Sasuke laugh at him like that, even after all that he'd already done.  Hadn't he improved?  Hadn't he given his all and gained recognition from everyone?  Why was it that Sasuke alone refused to see how much he had improved?  Why was it that he was still a failure in Sasuke's eyes?  He hated people like that, who closed their eyes to other people and saw only their own reflection in everything that went on.  People like that—people like Sasuke—trampled all over other people's feelings without even a second thought.  People like that were everywhere.

"I'll bring you back to Sakura-chan, no matter what.  No matter what I have to do, I won't turn back."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and Naruto could see the purple chakra that surrounded him intensify and darken in color.  Killing intent washed over him, prickling the hairs on the back of his neck and making goosebumps break out across his skin.  Sasuke smiled at him, the same infuriating smile that made Naruto feel like he didn't have a right to exist.  "You're getting a little ahead of yourself this time, Naruto.  Just because you beat Neiji and Gaara, it doesn't mean you're my equal.  Especially now.  I don't want to waste my time killing you, but you're getting to be a nuisance.  If you don't turn back, you won't live long enough to regret it."

Naruto gritted his teeth and clapped his hands together to do a hand seal.  "We'll see about that, Sasuke."

"It's your funeral.  Luckily for you, I've got a coffin right here for you," Sasuke said with a smirk.  His eyes lowered to Naruto's hands.  "Kage Bunshin again?  You'll get killed if you don't stop being so predictable."

"It can't be helped," Naruto said, his fingers moving into the familiar seals.  "Unlike you, I can't deny who I am."

"KAGE BUSHIN!"

Naruto gasped as the shadow clones appeared at his side.  Just now, his voice was not the only one in the forest.  He looked up to see Sasuke smiling at him, his hands clasped together in a seal identical to Naruto's.  Behind Sasuke, two dozen shadow clones were gathered, each with the same smirk on its face.

"You didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?"  Sasuke asked.  "My Sharingan is not for nothing, you know."

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted.  "Don't get so smug.  It's not over yet!"

But Naruto was shaken inside, even through his brave words.  As the shadow clones attacked each other, he was even more dismayed to see that his shadow clones were no match for Sasuke's.  The marks on Sasuke's face were giving him more power than Naruto had initially thought.  From his experience with the other four sound nin, he also knew that it weakened the user significantly.  That made sense, of course.  For a person to be generating so much chakra like Sasuke was meant that they were losing all that chakra and that pretty soon, they'd be too drained to continue.  So that meant…

"You seem about ready to give up," Sasuke said smugly.  "Unfortunately, I don't have time to stay and play with you.  I have business to attend to.  From now on, I hope we'll never meet again, Naruto."

"Running away?"

The smile disappeared from Sasuke's face.  "What?"

"I asked you if you were running away," Naruto said quietly.  "You are, aren't you?  You cowardly bastard.  You can't stand it that someone else is improving and getting recognized.  You can't stand it that the spotlight isn't on you anymore.  Poor little Uchiha survivor, poor little prodigy—a damn drama queen is what you are!"

"Shut up!  You don't understand anything!  You're just a lucky idiot, wandering around saying those outrageous things because fate's never dealt you an unlucky hand before.  I can't be like you.  I have a mission in life."

Naruto rushed at Sasuke, punching and kicking.  Sasuke dodged all of his attacks easily, reading Naruto's intent with his eyes with the bored competence of a scholar reading a book.  He finally returned Naruto's attacks with a well-placed punch to the chest that sent Naruto flying backwards into a tree.

"Until I can kill that man, I cannot be like the rest of you.  I cannot rest," Sasuke said, dusting his hands off.  "Even if I must take the devil's fruit, that is the path that I will take."

Naruto clawed at the tree behind him, using it to pull himself to his feet.  He felt a strange pressure when he inhaled, and the hot coppery sting of blood was tickling the back of his throat.  Sasuke had focused chakra into that last punch, he was sure.  Normal taijutsu didn't cause that much damage unless you were Lee.  It gave him a bit of satisfaction to know that Sasuke had been forced to use chakra; it meant that time was running out and he was getting closer to wearing Sasuke down.  All he had to do was stick with it.

"Will you just shut up for once?"  Naruto muttered.  "You're not special!  Every one of us has a mission in life.  Every one of us has felt loss and pain.  But we're all struggling to survive and get where we need to be on our own.  We're all trying our best to realize our dreams in our own way.  So a cowardly bastard like you, who runs away crying because he's too weak to believe in himself, should shut up and stop making excuses!  You, who once went to the academy with us, ate lunch in the same room and listened to the same lecture as us, went on missions and risked your life with us, and went through the Chuunin exam and shared the same dreams as us—your excuses are an insult to us!"  

He smelt it then, the scent of ozone.  From a distance that seemed very far away, the sound of birds chirping came to him.  And then the sound became a deafening roar, and Naruto saw that it was not a flock of birds flying his way, but Sasuke.  Sasuke, who held a ball of white, crackling chakra in his hands.  Chidori.

"I don't have time for you anymore," Sasuke said quietly.  "This time, it's really the end.  I hope you enjoyed your last words."

For some reason, the threat was not as terrifying as it should have been.  It was not as scary as seeing Sasuke stepping out of that coffin for the first time, and wondering if he was truly the same Sasuke.  Naruto already knew this was the same Sasuke he knew, even if hate had temporarily blinded him.  And he knew that the only way to settle their differences, and the only chance he had of bringing Sasuke back to Sakura-chan, was in this fight.

He gathered chakra in his hand and for once in his life, concentrating on it was surprisingly easy.  It almost came to him naturally.  The fear of death did not disturb him; he was only afraid of failure.  Afraid that he would let down Sakura-chan and the four other members of his squad.  They had risked their lives—and god, perhaps they had lost their lives—on this mission; his only answer to their efforts lay in this one last moment.  He had to make sure it was a good answer.

They came towards each other and collided like stars on wayward paths.  For an instance the light and the pain was all-consuming and time itself seem to have frozen forever, leaving only imprints of memories flashing through their brains.  Then the impact of the explosion came and Naruto felt a sudden, sharp pressure on his body, followed by the sensation of something snapping.

Blood flooded his mouth, but he barely had strength to turn his head to the side and let it trickle from his slack lips.  

When his vision cleared, he saw that he was once again lying beside a tree.  The ground in front of him was a smoking crater, surrounded by the still-burning and charred remains of great pines.  Sasuke laid on the other side of the crater, his body slumped over and unmoving.  Chidori and Rasegan had apparently cancelled each other out and the impact had sent the two of them flying backwards, repelled by the burst of energy that resulted.

"Sasuke," he called weakly.  "Are you still alive?  We need to get out of here before we burn to death."

Even as he said it, he wondered if he even had enough energy to get up and drag himself out of the burning forest.  From the other side of the crater, Sasuke asked him, "How?"

"How what?"

"How do you keep doing it?"

Naruto tried to sit up, but apparently his ribs had other plans.  He wondered how many of them were broken.  "I made a promise to Sakura-chan, remember?  I don't break promises."

The black marks had disappeared from Sasuke's face.  He was probably dead tired from using that much chakra and then getting so badly injured.  Naruto was glad.  He did not think he had the strength left to crawl over and break Sasuke's legs, which was what he would do if it meant the only way to keep Sasuke from running away.

"Hey, Naruto.  Make me a promise," Sasuke said softly.

"What?"

"Promise me one day, I'll reach my goal."

Naruto laughed, even though it hurt him.  "Yeah, sure.  We'll all get there together."

His laughter was cut short by the sudden presence of a killing intent so intense it made his blood run cold.  He knew it wasn't coming from Sasuke.  Also, it was so familiar.  He had felt it somewhere before, this malice.

"I'd hate to interrupt such a touching moment," said the dry, rasping voice.  "But Sasuke-kun and I have unfinished business."

Orochimaru stepped out from the trees and approached them, stopping just at the edge of the crater.  He eyed the two of them with amused interest.  "Well, well, looks like I missed a great battle."

"What do you want here?  Get away from Sasuke!"  Naruto cried, struggling to get up.  He scrambled to his knees, but the pain was too dizzying for him to stand.  "You pasty-faced, snake bastard!"

Orochimaru walked over to Sasuke's prone body and plucked him off the ground like a bag of flour.  "I have what I want.  I'll be going now."

"Wait!"  Somehow through the pain, he balanced himself well enough to stand on his own two feet.  He swallowed the blood that rose to his throat.  "You're not taking Sasuke anywhere."

Orochimaru's yellow snake eyes narrowed at him.  His mouth split into a wicked smile.  "The Kyubi boy.  I knew I should have killed you while I had the chance.  You've gotten in the way so many times now.  I guess it's better late than never.  Sasuke-kun, you'll have to wait while I finish up some business."

Orochimaru dropped Sasuke to the ground and took a kunai from his belt.  "How many of these do you think you can dodge, boy?"

Without waiting for an answer, Orochimaru flung the kunai at Naruto.  He tried to dodge it, but it was too quick for him to see, and while the kunai missed his throat and major arteries, it sliced a deep wound into the side of his neck.  Warm blood trickled down his neck and onto his chest, staining his shirt a deep red.  The effort of dodging made him sway, his eyes blurring everything into doubles.

"Lucky, lucky," Orochimaru said with a throaty chuckle.  "Let's see how long until your luck runs out."

"Stop!"  Sasuke clamped a hand on Orochimaru's ankle.  "Stop.  Don't bother with him.  I'll go with you.  Don't hurt him; he's not worth it."

Orochimaru smiled fondly at Sasuke.  "Sasuke-kun, you'll most certainly go with me.  Whether he's worth it or not, you have yet to fully realize.  And as for stopping…there's no chance of that."

Sasuke grabbed his own kunai from his belt.  Before he had a chance to do anything with it, Orochimaru's foot was pinning his wrist to the ground.  Orochimaru ground his foot onto Sasuke's wrist until he heard the bones crack.  "I was afraid this would happen.  The Kyubi boy has influenced you beyond my repair.  Well, it's my own fault for not killing him while I had the chance.  Now I'll have to kill both of you."

Sasuke smirked through his pain.  "You can't kill me.  You need me."

Orochimaru knelt down so that his face was level with Sasuke.  He smiled sweetly, "Wrong, Sasuke-kun.  I just need your body.  Boys like you are so easy to manipulate.  You're so lost in your own pain and self-pity that you can't see anything else.  I came to Konoha looking for a body to replace this decrepit one of mine.  You, with your advanced bloodline, will serve me well."

"What are you..?"  Sasuke asked, his eyes wide with rage and incomprehension.

"The secret to my immortality.  I will take that body of yours, and discard of the you inside it.  I can put it to better use than you can anyway.  In fact, I'll be doing you a favor, Sasuke-kun, because I plan to use that body and those eyes of yours to kill your brother, Itachi."

"Kill Itachi…" Sasuke whispered breathlessly.  "You…you can't!  That's mine.  That's my right!"

"A right is earned, Sasuke-kun, and you have earned yourself nothing.  Now be quiet while I finish up business.  You'll get your own punishment later, for making me damage my new body."

Orochimaru pulled out five more kunais and with a flick of his wrist, aimed them all at Naruto.  The first struck him in the thigh; the second just below the rib cage; the third struck him in the fleshy area above his collarbone; the fourth hit him right above the navel; and the fifth went through his ribcage, right over his heart.  Blue eyes wide, Naruto slowly looked down at his bleeding wounds.  For once in his life, he had no words left.  He crumpled to the ground and did not move.

"Naruto," Sasuke whispered softly, almost as an incantation.  He kept expecting the boy to stand back up and grin that stupid grin again.  Or maybe the body will disappear in a cloud of smoke.  Yes, that's right, it was Kage Bushin all along!  They'd all been tricked!  Sasuke waited and Naruto remained silent and still.  This time, as if trying to wake the boy, Sasuke screamed his name louder: "Naruto!"

But only the forest echoed it back to him, and Naruto stayed silent.

TBC

Author's Notes: As I've mentioned above, the AU classification on this fic is there because this fic takes place after the manga's storyline, so by default it's AU since events in this fic will surely clash with the manga storyline once the next issues come out.  Other than that, everything in the Naruto universe is still the same.

And I do realize this first chapter was testosterone-pumped and everything, but I was trying to stay as true to the mood of Naruto as I could.  Subsequent chapters _will_ have time for character introspection, development, relationship, etc etc.


	2. The Boy and the Beast

Chapter 2: The Boy and the Beast

            After a while the pain does not matter anymore.  It is an ocean teeming with minute life, surging and breaking waves across the shores of his consciousness.  He is floating in its warm water, surrounded by it on all sides.  He feels it but does not mind it; its myriad hues fascinate him with their complexities, so that the pain is a distraction unto itself.  He knows that he should be fighting the pain, struggling to break above its enveloping blanket.  Something important is going on, something that needs his attention, and he needs to wake up and deal with it.

            But he is tired and wants only for it to end, whatever _it is._

            He is afraid of opening his eyes.  There is a monster out there, lurking just beyond his eyelids with its gaping maw wide open, baring sharp teeth dripping with steaming saliva.  It is hungry for him, and the moment he opens his eyes, he'll fall victim to it.  So he stays still and quiet and prays that sleep will take him away.  And he lets himself sink.

            In the ocean of pain, he can hear his own heartbeat.  It is beating very fast and very hard, so that he can see the water rippling and shaking to its rhythm.  It disturbs him to see it.  He knows it means something bad is happening.

            Above the water, a dark shape looms, looking down at him.  He knows it is not the monster that awaits him—well, not _the monster.  This is another monster.  It also waits for him, patiently, like a spider waiting for the fly.  It plunges its head into the water and grins at him with its giant teeth, red eyes flaring like live coals._

            "Hello boy!"  It reaches for him and snatches his wrist with its clawed paw.  Above the water, its nine tails slashes at the air like hungry snakes.  "Isn't it about time you stopped sleeping?  If you don't wake up now, you'll never wake up."

            "I don't want to wake up," Naruto said in a trembling voice.  "Just leave me alone."

            "Ah, I wish I could," Kyubi hisses with sardonic amusement.  "If I had the choice, I'd leave a little brat like you to die on his own any day.  Unfortunately, we're bound together so if _you_ die, that means _I die as well.  I'll be damned if I die at the hands of that little worm that calls himself a snake."_

            "What do you want from me?"

            "I want you to get up, boy, the way you always do.  What's the matter?  Are you finally ready to lay down and die?  After driving everyone crazy with all your mouthing off?"

            Naruto remembered it then, the fights with Neiji and Sasuke.  How had he found the strength to get up all those times?  He did not know, but he knew that it had been nothing like that with Orochimaru.  The man had radiated an absolute malice towards him, a desire to wipe out his existence so strong that Naruto felt himself being erased slowly and deliberately in the man's mind.  How could he possibly be expected to face someone like that?

            "I can't get up anymore," Naruto whispered.  "He's too strong for me."

            Kyubi narrowed its wicked eyes at him.  "That he is, but that has nothing to do with it.  If you don't get up now, we're both dead.  And your friend and village will be soon to follow."

            "I can't," Naruto whimpered, but he kicked himself towards the surface anyway.  Names and faces came to him, unbidden.  Even if he could not win, if he gave up now, he would he handing them up to Orochimaru on a plate.  He would be essentially murdering them all, like the cowardly failure everyone thought he was.  "I can't do it by myself."

            Kyubi seemed to shrug at him.  "You still have to try.  For my sake if nothing else."

            Naruto grabbed onto Kyubi's paw, his fingers digging and tangling into the fox's mangled fur.  He grinned at the fox through a mouthful of blood, "I told you I can't do it by myself.  If you want to keep living, it's time you start earning your keep."

            Kyubi smiled at him like a fox that's just gotten into a henhouse, "Boy, do you even know what you're asking?  You've got some nerve, asking the devil for a favor."

            Naruto did not look away.   He held Kyubi's flaming eyes with his own blue ones, seeing the terrible choice he would have to take and its consequences.  "No matter what it takes, I won't back down."

            He gave one more kick to the surface, the bitter water of that ocean filling his nostrils and stinging his eyes.

*-*-*

            "He'll get up," Sasuke whispered to himself frantically, looking at Naruto's prone body.  Five minutes had already passed.  It was a new record for Naruto, but Sasuke knew that was all it was—a new record.  Naruto would surely get up.  Naruto was a guy who did not know the meaning of defeat.  Naruto would not—could not—die.  Not here, not like this.  

            Orochimaru bent and picked Sasuke up by his collar, dragging him along like a bag of fruit.  "I'm not very happy with you Sasuke-kun.  You've made me go through a lot of trouble."

            "He's still alive," Sasuke insisted, ignoring the man's words.  His eyes were still fixed on Naruto.  "You can't kill him that quickly.  He's not that kind of guy!"

            Orochimaru hesitated and looked at Sasuke with amusement.  He changed direction and started walking towards Naruto's body.  He nudged Naruto's prone body with the toe of his boot, then kicked it so that Naruto rolled onto his back.  Still, the boy did not move.  Sasuke could not even see his chest rising and falling.

            "Are you happy, Sasuke-kun?  I think your friend is thoroughly dead," said Orochimaru.  Sasuke thought he could detect a hint of relief in the voice.

            Orochimaru turned towards the border, but halted suddenly in his tracks.  Sasuke looked up wearily to see what was the matter.  The man's normally pale face had gotten even paler and a sheen of sweat covered his skin.  His lips were ashen.  Without ceremony, he dropped Sasuke to the ground.

            That was when Sasuke saw the hand clamped around Orochimaru's ankle.

            "Hey, you," said the familiar voice.  "I'm not done with you yet."

            Sasuke could not remember the last time he felt true relief like when he saw Naruto begin to slowly stand.  Relief was cut short, though, when he saw that there was something…_odd about Naruto.  It was the same feeling he had felt during Naruto's fight with Gaara, the presence of an overwhelmingly powerful Chakra that made the blood pound dizzyingly in his temples.  His throat was dry; his tongue had shriveled up in his mouth._

            The Naruto that stood before him was surrounded by a vortex of chakra.  It streamed from him so profusely and violently that it seemed to come from an unlimited source.  And Naruto was not so much a boy as he was a beast shoved into the ungainly body of a boy.  His fingers were tipped with sharp claws and his posture was that of an animal tensed and ready to pounce.  He looked at Orochimaru with blood red eyes, and he _smiled._

            "I think I've got something that belongs to you," Naruto growled.  The kunai that had pierced his body now slowly retracted.  Red chakra filled the wound and the flesh re-knitted, leaving his body unscathed.  Red chakra wound around the kunai and enveloped them completely.

            Then they seem to have disappeared.  Sasuke did not see them again until he heard Orochimaru grunt in pain; they had all been flung at Orochimaru, propelled by Naruto's monstrous chakra.  They'd all hit Orochimaru in exactly the same spots where Naruto had been hit, all but the kunai aimed at his heart.  Orochimaru had caught that one; it impaled his right palm, its tip an inch away from his heart.

            It was a simple attack, but the chakra that had fueled it was unbelievably powerful.  Sasuke had not even seen the kunai move.  He had not even seen the blur of color which signified their movement.  They had escaped his eyes—his Sharingan eyes—completely.  For all he knew, they had simply disappeared and then reappeared again.

            "Annoying boy.  I was careless.  I should have made sure you were dead," Orochimaru muttered, but Sasuke caught the way his voice trembled slightly.

            Naruto's red eyes narrowed into slits, but his smile grew wider.  Fox-like.  "I _was_ dead."

            Naruto dashed forward suddenly, his form disappearing in a blur of motion.  He disappeared again by Orochimaru's side, his claws ripping at Orochimaru's back.  The man tried to dodge, but he was no match for Naruto's speed.  The moment Orochimaru moved away, Naruto was on his other side, kicking and clawing like a wild animal, his mouth still split into that manic grin.

            When Orochimaru finally fell, Naruto pounced on him like a hungry beast and tore at Orochimaru's throat with his teeth.  Sasuke edged away from the two of them, horrified and terrified.  Orochimaru turned his panicked face to Sasuke and reached out for him with grasping fingers.

            Pain seared into his neck as the curse mark burned him.  He fell to the ground, the pain printing dizzying marks of red and yellow across the back of his eyelids.

            "Stop!"  Orochimaru cried at Naruto.  "If you don't stop now, your friend is dead."

            Naruto halted, his mouth dripping with Orochimaru's blood.  "Is that a threat?"

            Orochimaru inched away from the boy and towards Sasuke, who was writhing in pain from the curse mark.  He smirked at Naruto, his face smeared with dirt and blood.  "The boy is totally under my control now.  He's got my curse mark at level 2.  I can kill him."

            "You need his body, you said."

            "It'll be of no use if I die before I can obtain it."

            Naruto settled back onto his haunches and cocked his head to the side, looking at Orochimaru.  He licked the blood off of his lips and seemed to be considering something of vast importance.  "Ne, Orochimaru.  I think there's one thing you should know."

            Orochimaru looked at him uneasily, his eyes flitting about as if looking for an escape route.  "What's that?"

            Naruto grinned at him and leaned forward, his palm flat against the ground.  "A snake should _never threaten a fox."_

            Naruto sprung off the ground and disappeared in a blur of motion.  Orochimaru had only enough time to scoot backwards before Naruto pounced on him again, his teeth clamping around Orochimaru's throat.  

            "Wait!" Orochimaru cried, and his only response was the wet crunch of his trachea breaking beneath Naruto's teeth.

            Orochimaru took a long time to die, and Naruto relished every moment of it.  Sasuke watched as his teammate slowly lick the man's blood off of his lips and fingers.  The curse mark had stopped burning him, but he felt more afraid than ever with Orochimaru dead and Naruto still alive.  Twice Naruto had looked at him and grinned at him with bloody teeth, and twice Sasuke had turned away and gotten sick on the forest floor.

            When Orochimaru was finally dead, Naruto got to his feet and walked slowly over to Sasuke.  He crouched down next to Sasuke and smiled that fox-smile again, his eyes burning blood-red.  "Well, Sasuke­-_kun­, looks like you owe me a favor."_

            "What are you?"  Sasuke had finally asked.

            And Naruto had answered, half mockingly: "I am he who has eaten the devil's fruit."  Then, almost as an afterthought, he smiled at Sasuke and added: "I'm still hungry."

*-*-*

            Sasuke had dreams after that.  In his dreams, he would relive the whole thing over and over again, though each time the monster changed its shape a little bit.  Always it was a gigantic red fox with nine tails, but sometimes it had red eyes and a stupid, crooked smile and sometimes it had sad, blue eyes and rows of razorblade teeth.  Each time it got a little bit closer to him, maw gaping or claws extended, kunai ready or chakra choking him.  And each time, just when he thought it was dead, it would retract and strike itself.

            Sasuke still is not sure if that happened that day really happened, or if it was a dream dreamt in delirium.  All he remembered were the eyes.  The red, crazed eyes as Naruto approached him, mouth still full of Orochimaru's fresh blood.  And then blue eyes opened in pain and horror, and Naruto was scrambling away from him with a kunai stabbed through his ownpalm.  Sasuke remembered that Naruto was crying and babbling hysterically, but he was too frightened to make any sense of what was happening.

            He just remembered hearing Naruto screaming, "Kyubi!  Kyubi!  Kyubi!"  And each time he screamed out the word he would twist the kunai deeper into his own hand, as if trying to keep an enemy at bay rather than his own flesh. 

            He remembered nothing after that.  When he opened his eyes again, Sakura was there.  Sakura with tears of happiness in her eyes and a white hospital room with the smell of flowers wafting sweetly through the air.  He was wounded but still alive, scolded but still accepted, and totally free of the curse mark.

            He had to stay in the hospital for a month to fully recuperate, and in that time the village celebrated the death of Orochimaru with vigor.  Even stuck in the hospital as he was, Sasuke could feel their elation wafting to him.  Orochimaru was dead.  Peace was finally here.  And it was all thanks to….thanks to…

            But they never mentioned who it was all thanks to.  The hero of the story was conveniently blotted out, hidden by their joyful celebration so cleverly that you'd never even know there was a hero.  For all Sasuke knew, Orochimaru could have died of a heart attack.  But Sasuke knew better.

            He tried to ask Sakura, but she always gave him vague answers.  When he was well enough to seek the answers for himself, he went to Naruto's house and found it empty.  The clothes were still there, the bed rumpled, the table cluttered with ramen boxes and milk that had started to develop a life of its own.  But Naruto was not there.

            He checked the hospital and found no Naruto.  He checked the ramen shop and found it empty and on the verge of going out of business.  He checked the forest, the academy, the hot springs, the training grounds.  Finally, he went to Kakashi-sensei to find out the truth.

            And the truth was: Naruto was gone.  He had left two weeks ago with Jiraiya and no one knew when—or _if—he was coming back.  He had not gotten permission from the Fifth Hokage, so by all rights he should be declared a missing-nin and hunted down (and there were some people in the village who fully supported this, even knowing what Naruto had done for them), but Tsunade had not issued the order so for the time being, Naruto was just…away on vacation.  _

            The news and circumstances of Orochimaru's death had spread far and wide, as news of this import was apt to do.  Customers surged into the famed Konoha, so that every available jounin and chuunin was kept busy from morning to night.  The Chuunin exams were held again, without any problems this time.  In Konoha, time passed.

            About two years after the incident and one year after Sasuke passed his Chuunin exam, a business proposition was sent out to all the shinobi villages, as well as to famed mercenaries and bounty hunters.  The reward was $100 million.  The client was kept anonymous.  And the mission was quite simple: to capture Uzumaki Naruto, dead or alive.

            And thus, Konoha's #1 hyperactive ninja, became the famed $100 million Genin.

TBC


	3. Sannin De Hitotsu

Chapter Three: San-nin De Hitotsu

            Sakura was getting pretty sick of trees.  Sasuke had insisted that they kept to the forest routes as much as possible to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to themselves, so for the last three days, Sakura had been surrounded by nothing but trees.  Well…trees and Sasuke, but for all the attention that he was paying her, he might as well be another tree in the forest.  They'd been traveling for three days and he'd barely said a dozen words to her.  And most of the time, those words had been "Let's rest" or "Time to go."

            You'd never guess that they were dating.  Well, dating was a rather loose term.  What it really was was this: Sakura hung on to Sasuke, and instead of pushing her away like he usually did with the other girls, he tolerated her presence.  For Sasuke, it was almost enough to be considered affection.

            It wasn't that Sakura was unsatisfied.  She knew that all the girls in the village envied her and would maim, kill and cleverly dispose of some bodies to be in the position that she was in.  It was just that…it wouldn't kill him to pay her a little attention, would it?  What hurt her most was that he didn't even do it out of malice.  He simply naturally did not notice that she existed.

            Sometimes she missed the way that they were, back when Naruto was part of the team.  She'd been horrible to him when he was around and there were times when she'd wished he'd leave her alone with Sasuke, but now she realized that things were _right_ when they were three.  There was a balance in the number, a space that could never be filled with just two.  Sometimes, in the silences that yawned between her and Sasuke, she thought she could hear Naruto's voice, screaming that he wanted ramen or that he'd be Hokage one day.  It made her heart ache with a pain that even tears could not relieve and she would blink her dry eyes and try to forget that sense of longing in her.  Sometimes she managed to convince herself that she was alright, that life goes on and so does Haruno Sakura.  But sometimes she could not.

            Naruto had been such a presence in their team that his absence left a void that nothing could fill.  They'd tried to replace him with a few new genins, but Sasuke had silently and firmly rejected them all.  Team Seven would remain a two man team…at least until they could find Naruto again.

            And of course, they _would_ find Naruto again.  Of that, Sasuke was certain.  Sakura did not quite share his conviction—oh, but she _hoped_.  They all hoped—but she still followed him on his expeditions.  

            It happened about two or three times a month.  Sasuke would get a one or two day holiday from his missions, and he and Sakura—and she _always_ found a way to schedule her holidays to match his, no matter how much she had to beg and whine to, and no matter to whom—would go out looking for Naruto.  It was a fruitless enterprise, considering the fact that half the ninja world was out looking for Naruto as well.  So far, nobody had been able to find him.  It meant that Naruto was still alive, which was a good thing.  It also meant that he was nearly impossible to find.

            There were rumors of his appearance everywhere.  For the last two years, Sakura and Sasuke had been chasing after these rumors, only to find that they were all false; most of them had been started by the villagers, who took advantage of the sudden influx of shinobi and bounty hunters to charge extravagant prices for food and lodging.  Still, Sasuke refused to give up. 

            He'd gone so far as to try and become a Hunter-nin.  Sakura had begged Kakashi-sensei to forbid him to do it, and—much to her surprise—Kakashi had actually agreed with her.  Sasuke had too much talent to waste his life away as a hunter-nin.  He also did not have the mental and emotional constitution of a hunter-nin.  That kind of lifestyle would create unbearable tensions for him.  Well, at least that was what Kakashi-sensei said.  Sasuke had taken the decision with surprising composure and the subject was never raised again.

            Of course that didn't mean anything.  Even if they did not let him pursue it legitimately, Sasuke would find a way.  That was why she was stuck here with him, wasn't it?  Well, she could always look at the bright side of it.  The forest was a picturesque setting; if she put a bit of imagination to it, it could almost be like a romantic date.

            "Keep up, Sakura," Sasuke threw over his shoulder.  He had stopped on a tree branch about ten meters in front of her and was looking at her with an annoyed expression on his face.

            "Ne Sasuke-kun!  Let's rest a bit.  It's already noon and we haven't eaten anything yet," Sakura said.

            Sasuke frowned and turned away from her, looking at something in the distance that she could not see.  "If we keep going, we can reach the village in thirty minutes.  Can't you keep up?"

            "Yes.  Yes, of course I can," Sakura insisted.  "I just thought you might be tired."

            Sasuke shook his head brusquely.  "Let's go."

            They took off again.  Sakura was glad she had practiced so hard to increase her chakra control.  Sasuke had more chakra than she did, and it took everything she had just to keep up with him.  She did not have any chakra to waste.  

            By the time they reached the village, Sakura was ready to collapse on the spot.  She settled for leaning against the wall of an inn to catch her breath.  If Sasuke saw her like this, he would not take her along on future expedition.  She could not let him see her weakness.  She had to keep up.  She…she…she wanted to just curl up in bed and sleep.

            Sakura pulled her cloak closer around her and waited as Sasuke asked the villagers inside the inn for news.  She knew that the chances of being able to rest were slim.  They'd been able to get a four day holiday this time, and Sasuke would not waste a minute.  They'd gone farther from Konoha than they'd ever had before.  She knew that it had fueled Sasuke's hopes, being in this snowy village so far from Konoha.  Surely if Naruto wanted a place to hide, he'd go as far from Konoha as possible?   Surely…but it was still like finding a needle in a haystack.

            Inside the inn, Sasuke was having an animated conversation with the innkeeper.  Sakura moved closer to them to hear what they were saying.

            "What kind of shop is it?  Does he come there often?"  Sasuke was saying, his eyes shining brightly, apparently oblivious of the icy snow melting down his face.

            The innkeeper, a chubby man who was starting to look nervous at Sasuke's fervor, scratched his head and shrugged.  "It's the only place I've ever seen 'im, aside from here.  He only comes here at night.  Usually he's sitting at that ramen shop.  I've never seen a kid eat so much ramen."

            "Where is this shop?"  Sasuke demanded.

            The innkeeper pointed it out.  "It's down there.  About six buildings down.  You can't miss it."

            "Thank you," Sasuke said.  He grabbed Sakura's hand and dragged her out of the inn, running in the direction the innkeeper had pointed in.

            "Sasuke-kun!  Please!  You don't really think…" Sakura trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.  Surely even Sasuke knew how hopeless this was.  The chances of them ever finding Naruto were slim to nil.  Just because it was a _ramen_ shop…Sasuke was getting far too elated over what was obviously a false hope.  It cut her just to see the sparkle in his eyes, the look of hope that lit his face up.  She had never seen her look at her or anyone else like that.  "He's not there, Sasuke-kun.  Just give up.  Can't you stop this and just get on with your life?"

            Sasuke stopped in his tracks and gave her an icy stare.  Snowflakes landed in his hair and melted in a small rivulet down his neck, but he was apparently oblivious to this.  If he stayed out like this for much longer, he'd get sick.  Sakura reached out to him, "Please.  Let's just stop this."

            He shrugged her hand off.  "You were the one who said you were hungry."

            He turned his back on her and started to walk towards the ramen shop.  She hesitated—but only for a second—and followed him.  No matter what, she always found herself following him.

            Sakura held her breath as they entered the shop.  There were three men there.  Two were dressed in blue and huddled over two bowls of ramen in the corner.  Melting snow dripped off their faces into their full ramen bowls.

            The third man was wrapped in a white cloak.  His long blonde hair was dripping wet and sticking to the sides of his face.  Sakura felt her heart clench up when she saw the familiar profile.  The blue eye, the scars on his face, that stupid grin.

            Could it be?

            As if to answer her question, the man in question slurped up the rest of his ramen and leaned against the counter.  "Oji-san!  One more!"

            "Naruto-kun."

            Slowly, as if he had not been called that in a while and had forgotten that it was his true name, Naruto turned to face her.  A smile slowly spread over his face.  "Oh.  Hey there, Sakura-chan.  Hey Sasuke."

*-*-*

            Even in his sleep he thought about it.  What it would be like to finally find Naruto.  The words he would say.  He'd planned for it for three years, thinking that somehow it would solve something, that something would be _resolved_ by this meeting.  Yet now, when Naruto was finally in front of him, he could not think of a word to say.  And what kind of greeting was that anyways?  Hey Sasuke?

            The boy was as stupid as ever and yet everything about him was completely different.  The way he held himself, so cool and distant from the rest of them, was utterly unlike the Naruto that Sasuke knew.  And of course…there was that eye.  His right eye was the same blue as Sasuke remembered, but the left eye was a bright and feral red.  It was the Kyubi's eye.

            "Ne Sakura-chan, you want a ramen bowl?  My treat," Naruto said cheerily.  He ordered a ramen bowl for Sakura.  "Hey, you gotta tell me if Kakashi-sensei ever finished reading that stupid book.  And how are Hinata and the Fuzzy Eyebrows?  What about Neji?  Hah!  I bet he can't even walk after that beating I gave him…"

            Three years worth of anger welled up in him, unbidden.  He suddenly wanted to punch Naruto and see if the boy could still bleed red.  How could he be so nonchalant after all that had happened?

            "…and in _one_ village, there were _two_ ramen shops, one in each end of the village.  We stayed there for three months.  I'm thinking of going back soon, but I hear the soba ramen here is really good so I had to try…" Naruto was still chattering away, a big stupid grin on his face.  Sasuke noticed that the cheer that was evident in his voice did not reach his eyes.

            "Naruto," he began, stepping towards the other boy.

            Before he could say another word, the two ninjas sitting in the corner had disappeared in a blur of color.  They reappeared again before Sasuke even had a chance to blink.  One was standing behind Naruto, holding a kunai against his throat.  The other was standing by his side, holding a kunai with its tip pointing at Naruto's ear.  The flat of his palm was against the butt of the kunai, ready to slam it into Naruto's ear the moment he made a false move.

            "Finally caught you, Kyubi brat," one of them said.

            "The two of you stand still, unless you want your friend dead.  Make us kill him and we'll go after you next," the other one said.

            Naruto sat there calmly, his fingers drumming against the counter.  "Um, sure, sure.  Stay still, no sudden moves, I got you.  I know the drill.  So which village are you guys from?  Hidden mist?  Hidden rain?  Hidden sand?  Hidden snow?  Hidden sewer ditch, smells like."

            "Shut up, brat," the ninja behind Naruto growled.  "You won't be so mouthy once you're dead."

            "Oh wow, I haven't heard that one before.  On a scale of one to ten, I rate that a zero for no creativity," Naruto said, grinning.  "You want to try again?  Sure you don't have anything to say anything about my mother or sister?  Well, my hypothetical sister at least."

            The ninjas exchanged a nervous look.  Of course, Naruto had quite a reputation and it made them uneasy, but surely even he could not get himself out of a fix like this.  No, he was just playing mind games with them, using bravado to make them mess up and make a mistake.  

            Sasuke could not find a weakness in their formation.  They had moved into position so quickly that none of them had gotten a chance to react.  These guys were definitely jounin level shinobi.  It hurt his pride to be caught so off guard so easily.  They'd taken Naruto like taking candy from a baby.  Maybe if he used Chidori he could do something.  But Chidori required him to power up and—

            "You over there," the shinobi at Naruto's side growled to him.  "Make a move and the girl dies.  Don't think we can't see through you."

            Damn.

            "Hey um…whoever you guys are.  How about we make a deal?" said Naruto.

            "What kind of deal?"

            Naruto grinned.  "If you let me and my friends go, I'll let you live.  Okay?"

            Well, Sasuke thought, the stupid idiot had never been good at diplomacy.

            "No deal."

            Naruto sighed theatrically.  "Well, I tried."

            "We can see through your bluff," scoffed the ninja behind Naruto.

            "I doubt it," Naruto said and stood up from the stool.  Moving as though they were one, the ninja behind Naruto slashed his throat with the kunai while the ninja at his side slammed the kunai into his ear.  Sakura screamed Naruto's name and Sasuke felt his stomach lurch sickeningly.  His mind's eye projected an image of a glassy-eyed Naruto falling to the floor, blood screaming after him in a crimson ribbon.

            But instead, there was only a cloud of smoke and the familiar _pop_ of a bunshin disappearing.  Two Narutos dropped from the ceiling and landed neatly beside the two would-be assassins, each with a kunai poised at their throat.

            "You should have made the deal," they said in unison.

            "Kage bunshin?  Impossible!  We've been with you the whole day.  You haven't moved from that spot!  You couldn't have performed Kage Bunshin without us noticing."

            "Unless, of course…" one Naruto started.

            "…I performed it before you came," the other one finished.

            "You've been here the entire day!" one of them cried shrilly, desperately.  "Nobody has that kind of stamina!"

            "Famous last words," Naruto said simply and Sasuke finally saw how horribly empty Naruto's eyes looked as his pulled the kunai cleanly through his assassins' throats.  The bodies dropped with a heavy thump on the floor.  There was a puff of smoke as one of the Narutos disappeared.  The one remaining reached into his pocket and drew out a few gold pieces, laying them on the counter.  

            "For the clean up fee," he said quietly.

            Naruto looked up at Sakura and Sasuke and smiled cheerfully.  "I'm sorry about the interruption.  Where were we?"

            "You bastard!  Even now…"  Sasuke lunged forward, his fist drawn back.  Naruto didn't move as Sasuke's punch connected.  "…you're hiding from us!  Show your real self."      

            The Naruto in front of him disappeared into a cloud of smoke beneath his knuckles.

            "Another bunshin?"  Sakura asked.  Sasuke could hear the hurt in her voice, the sense of betrayal.

            "Gomen, gomen," said a familiar voice from above them.  Sasuke looked up to see Naruto hanging upside down from the ceiling.  He'd been using chakra to suspend himself from the ceiling the whole time.  Sasuke tried to mask his shock beneath a scowl.  It had been such an obvious trick, but he had not felt Naruto's presence at all.  Naruto had masked his presence—that terrifying presence—completely.  "But you know you can never be too careful.  A ninja must read underneath the underneath and all that."

            Naruto flipped off the ceiling and landed on his feet, dusting himself off.  It was only Naruto.  Finally just Naruto, the boy who'd been his teammate, whom he thought he'd known.  But suddenly Naruto was terrifying.  Even though he was obviously Naruto and not the Kyubi, Sasuke was terrified of the boy standing in front of him.  He'd killed two jounin level ninjas like child's play.  He had masked his presence so well that they'd been totally unaware of it.  Why, they had been like…they had been like flies wandering onto a spider's web.

            Three years.  It had only been three years.  How had Naruto changed so much in just three years?  What kind of life had he been living? 

            "Let's go somewhere else and talk," Naruto said, picking up his cloak from the stool and putting it on.  "I know a good restaurant around here.  There's nothing like dead bodies to ruin an appetite, know what I mean?"

            Sasuke and Sakura followed Naruto out of the shop, both of thinking the same thought: that no, they had absolutely no idea what he meant.  They were shinobi and sure they'd both killed before, but not like that.  Killing was a terrifying and largely accidental thing that they did in order to defend themselves, and they forgot most of it in the haze of adrenaline and fear.  They did not kill in the calm, cold way that he had just done.  They were not even sure if they could.

            The three of them walked together in the snow like old friends, their step falling in synch with each other the way it used to in the old days.  But the distance between them was vast, the cold abyss between bright stars.

TBC

Author's Notes: 

First off, thanks to everyone who reviewed this fic.  It was a very pleasant surprise and I do appreciate it.  Secondly, I apologize for how long it took to update, but I was away on holiday and did not have access to a computer.  I noticed some questions that were raised in the reviews, and I figure I'll address them here.  Feel free to skip this section as it'll be pretty boring.

-_How can Orochimaru hold the kunai when his arms are injured?_   Eh, I was a little unsure as to how injured Orochimaru's arms were when I wrote this.  I mean I know he can't use hand seals, but he still held up fairly well in the fight with Tsunade and Jiraiya.  He even manages to go after Naruto and injure Tsunade with a kunai if I remember correctly.  In any case, it is a good question and it is questionable, so I'll just classify this as another thing that falls under AU.  ^^  Just indulge me.

-Yes, I did get the $100 Million Genin from Trigun.  I couldn't resist.

-_Is__ this Sasu/Naru, het, yaoi, and/or what pairings are going to be here?_  Um…this question kind of surprised me, because pairing was the last thing I was thinking of when I wrote this.  I mean yes, people do and will develop relationship in this fic, but the reason I wrote this wasn't so one character could get with another.  So…occasionally there will be "pairings" and occasionally they will change as the characters change and the need for new character dynamics arises.  I haven't decided exactly what will happen with that yet, so I can't answer this with any certainty.  Personally, I have no problem with either the het or yaoi fandom, so this fic could be either or both or neither.  Heh, way to be ambiguous, right?  All I can say is: just read it.  If you don't like it, then stop reading it.  It's that simple.

Also: the title of this chapter, "San-nin de hitotsu" was the phrase Sakura used when she told Kakashi that they (team 7) were three people but of one mind.  It pretty much embodies the spirit of trust and camaraderie that exists between the genins of Team 7.


	4. The Cost of Living

            The inn was the only one of its kind in the small village and all travelers eventually wound up at its door.  The innkeeper was a kind and attentive—if somewhat nosy—man and he made it his business to know (or at least to find out) everything he could about his patrons.  Of course, he was no fool.  He'd been in the business too long not to know when to stop prying and which questions were unnecessary.  As a result, his customers usually left happy, having found a willing ear or a quiet night's rest.

            When Naruto and his friends walked into the inn, the innkeeper had already set out a table full of food.  A pan lined with hot coals had been laid out to keep them warm.  Three cups of tea sat innocently on the table, giving off thin wisps of steam.

            Naruto smiled, "I can't keep anything from you, can I Oji-san?  Sometimes I wonder if it's you or me that's the shinobi."

            The innkeeper laughed disarmingly, "Ah, well that's my job.  I just happened to have met your friends earlier and guessed that you'd want to meet up.  Should I prepare two extra rooms?"

            Naruto shrugged and turn to Sasuke, who glared back at him and answered.  "Of course."

            The innkeeper nodded and went on.  "I had Ayame prepare your favorite soba ramen, Naruto-kun."

            Naruto beamed at him and rushed to the table immediately.  "This is my lucky day!  Ayame-chan's soba noodles are the best in the world.  Um…but she didn't just make one bowl, did she?"

            The innkeeper smiled knowingly.  "There's more in the back when you finished."

            "Oji-san, you know me best."

            The innkeeper left them to their talks, or rather, to Sasuke's glaring, Sakura's anxious silence, and Naruto's noisy slurping.

            In the sudden warmth of the inn, Naruto was finding it harder to convince himself that his shivering was purely from the cold.  But he told himself that it was okay.  He'd been calm.  Even after the surprise of Sakura and Sasuke showing up, he'd kept control of the situation.  Control.  That was the important word.  He'd been totally in control of the situation.

            From the depths of his mind, familiar laughter drifted up to greet the word.

            _Control?__  Who're you kidding, boy?_

Naruto ignored the voice and pretended to be fascinated by his ramen.  The noodle texture was perfect, soft yet not too mushy.  Ayame-chan really was a fantastic cook.

            _My, my, you never grow up, do you boy?  After all this time with me you're still a child.  Do you really think I'm like your childhood monsters, that you can close your eyes and wish me away?  If you look under your bed, you'll find more than shadows, boy.  I'm lurking there, and I'll bite your face off._

Again, the maniacal laughter.

            "Naruto, are you alright?"  Sakura asked him.  "You suddenly look pale."

            _My, that's a pretty little thing, isn't she?  I wonder what she tastes like.  _

He lashed against the thought: Shut up, Kyubi.  Go away.

            _Scared I've hit too close to the mark?  You ever wonder that yourself?  What her mouth would taste like?  How those pretty eyes would look when you've got her pressed against a wall?_

Go away.  I'm warning you.

            "I'm fine, Sakura-chan," he lied.  "Just recovering from the cold outside."

            "Are you going to talk to us or are you just going to eat all day?" Sasuke asked.

            Naruto shrugged.  "Sure we can talk.  Talk all you want.  Specifically, talk about how Iruka-sensei is doing.  Oh, and how about the fuzzy eyebrows?  How's he?  And is that old hag still the Hokage or did she spend all of Konoha's money gambling?"

            Sasuke slammed his fist on the table, shivering with barely restrained violence.  "You know that's not what I'm talking about!"

            _We can stop talking about the girl if you'd like.  How about this guy instead?  He looks kind of familiar.  Ah yes, isn't he the meal that you never allowed me to finish?_

"I don't know what you're talking about," Naruto said.  He closed his eyes briefly, then added.  "Maybe now isn't the time to talk after all?"

            "When is then?  You've been trying to avoid us all this time, running away from Konoha.  Now that I've found you, you pretend like nothing's happened!  Are you going to run away forever?"

            _Isn't this my lucky day?  Come to think of it, I don't think you've let me have any fun in a while.  How about it?  You know you want to.  Don't you hate him?  Wouldn't you love to beat him?  With my help, you can.  Even without my help, you probably can.  Come on, don't tell me you wouldn't love to see him defeated and on his knees?  You could break him, you know.  Show him the reality that he won't acknowledge._

"Shut up, Sasuke.  You don't know anything!  I haven't run away at all," Naruto said brusquely, struggling to keep Kyubi under control.  He felt Kyubi's chakra building up inside him, demanding release.  He was dizzy with the intoxicating power of it.  His left eye began to throb.

            "Naruto, are you sure you're okay?"  Sakura asked worriedly.  She reached out and touched his arm gently.

            "Unlike you, I never run away from any—stop!"  Naruto flinched at Sakura's touch and flung her hand off his arm so violently that he knocked a teacup to the floor.  He instantly regretted it, seeing the way her eyes widen with fear and confusion.  Kyubi's presence grew stronger in him.  A coppery taste formed in the back of his throat.

            "Now is not the time to talk.  I have to go," Naruto muttered and stood up quickly from the table.  He headed for the stairs.

            Sasuke grabbed his arm and pulled him back, his face twisted into a mask of anger.  "Running away again?  You can't just leave after pulling a stunt like that.  What the hell is wrong with you?  You have to tell us—we can help you."

            "I don't need your help, Sasuke."

            This, of all things, seemed to make Sasuke the angriest.  He tightened his grip on Naruto's arm, unwilling to let go without a fight.  "You have no right to say that to me."

            "Let go of me before you regret it, Sasuke." Naruto said slowly.

            "What makes you think _you_ can make me regret it?"  Sasuke asked coolly, his pride not letting him back down from the challenge.

            _See?  The boy is asking for a fight.  Are you really going to let him go away with that smirk on his face?  You're different now.  Make him see it.  
            "Things are different now, Sasuke.  You don't want to fight me."_

            "No, I think I do.  In fact, I'm sure of it.  We never did have a chance to finish our fight properly.  I think it's about time we finish what we started."

            _One good thrust with a kunai will do it.  The eyes are a good spot.  Throat too.  All you need is a little speed and a little nerve.  But we know you've got nerve.  You're a killer after all.  You live for the metallic bite of the kunai on your enemy's flesh._

"I know what you're trying to do.  I warned you," Naruto whispered to Kyubi.  Sasuke gave him a confused look, thinking the other boy was talking to him.  But Naruto already had his eyes closed, his lips mumbling softly.  "Don't think you can get away with this."

            Naruto concentrated and tried to visualize his mind as an image like he'd been thought.  As usual, he found himself in a huge, dark dungeon.  In the last and darkest cell, Kyubi waited for him behind the rusty bars.  The fox smiled.

            _Come to fetch me, have you?_

"You're too loud today," Naruto said.  "You're not a good tenant at all."

            _Going to evict me, then?_

            "More like a probation."

            He concentrated his chakra until it was a bright ball of violet energy in his hand.  He sent it out towards Kyubi's cell, spreading it out until it formed a thick wall of chakra in front of the fox.

            _What do you think you're doing?  You can't do this, BOY.  I will not be held down by such a stupid trick, but some stupid BOY.  Even your whole village could not stop me!  I WAS GREAT BEFORE YOU WERE EVER BORN, AND I AM GREATER THAN YOU'LL EVER BE!_

He visualized the chakra as bricks in his mind and slowly, from the bottom up, the blue energy started to manifest itself into the form of a brick.  Kyubi's voice grew softer and more muffled as the wall formed.

            _No, boy.  PLEASE.  DON'T DO THIS!_

The pleading soon turned to violence.  Kyubi threw himself at the rusty bars, his violent red chakra rushing out towards Naruto.  However, it got absorbed by Naruto's chakra wall, and the only difference Kyubi's outburst seemed to make was that it make the wall of chakra a brighter violet and the bricks manifested themselves even faster than before.

            _You can't keep this up forever!  It will drain your life!_

            At first the chakra flow was so subtle that Sasuke barely felt it.  Standing so close to Naruto, he only sensed it as a force that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.  Sakura seemed totally unaware of it.  Slowly, it grew stronger and stronger, until at one point it seemed to burst violent from every pore of Naruto's body.

            It washed over him like alternating currents of ice cold and boiling hot water, streaming over the surroundings until it made even the cups of tea on the table rattle and tremble.  But it was more than just chakra.

            He also felt killing intent there, as if two forces were battling to the death inside of Naruto.  The chakra that streamed out of the boy seem to come from two totally different—well no, one seemed to contain variations of the other, but their _levels_ were totally different—chakra.  The chakra melded and clashed against each other, like waves breaking against the shore, being absorbed in the sand and yet  battering the sand at the same time.  He had never seen anything like it before.  It disturbed him.

            And then, as suddenly as it had started, the chakra flow stopped.  Not just stopped, but stopped immediately, so suddenly that it was as if it had never happened in the first place.

            Naruto opened his eyes and he was Naruto again.

            "You going to explain that?"  Sasuke demanded.

            Naruto smiled at him.  "No, actually.  I don't think I will."

            Sasuke did not push him further.  He did not quite understand what had just happened, but he sensed that it was—as Naruto had said earlier—not a good time for talking.  Although they were perfectly safe in the inn, he suddenly felt wary, the way he did whenever he was on a high risk situation.  In cases like these, it was best to work by intuition, and ask the questions when it was the right time for questions.

            He still had time left.  This time, he would not let Naruto go.  He'd find the answers he wanted.  It was only a matter of time.

*-*-*

            Sakura crept out of her room in the early hours of morning to find a plate of leftovers left out for them by the innkeeper.  The man really was a mind reader.  He could probably make a better shinobi than she could.  Not that that would be extremely hard, considering how little distance she's gained even after all the training that she put in.  She'd tried hard, but found it impossible to keep up with Sasuke-kun.

            He'd already passed the chuunin exam after all, while she was still debating about whether or not she was ready for the next exam, which was to be in six months.  Despite being able to control chakra well, she had such a small supply that it made little difference and did not allow her to excel in any technique.

            Well, almost none.  She still had one trump card left.  It was the skill that she was proudest of, and the one that got her closest to Sasuke-kun.

            Sakura cast a longing look at the plate of leftovers, but ignored it for the time being.  She crouched down and withdrew her kunai, pricking her thumb with its point.  She concentrated her chakra and did the necessary hand seals, praying—as she always did when performing this move—that she would not screw it up again and it would work this time.

            "Summoning no Jutsu!"  The smoke cleared to reveal and small bird no bigger than her palm.  It chirped at her expectantly.  She let out a sigh of relief.  "It worked this time."

            She'd had to beg Kakashi for almost a year before he'd even let her try the Summoning no Jutsu.  It'd taken her another year to be able to perform the move, although all that she'd been able to summon was a small egg.  After another eight months of practice, she was able to summon a small pigeon, although it only worked ten percent of the time.  Still, she was quite proud of it.  It was a move that even Sasuke didn't know, though she suspected that if he wanted to learn, he could do it much better than her.

            Sakura withdrew a small slip of paper and attached it to the bird's leg.  "To Tsunade-sama.  And don't play around this time.  This is an urgent message."

            The small pigeon chirped once as if to say "Of course, I am a professional."  Sakura opened the door for it and it flew out, blending with the white of the snow outside.

            Delivering messages was about the only thing the pigeon could do, and at times it managed to screw even that simple task of.  Still, it had a distinct advantage over regular pigeons in that she could sense its presence at all time and make it destroy the note if it ever got detected by the enemies.

            "Well, now that that's done," Sakura muttered.  She crept over to the plate of food and sat down, nibbling on a few pieces of meat and vegetable.  She'd not eaten at all earlier and now she was starving.

            It had been impossible to eat under such a tense atmosphere, though.  Sasuke-kun was out for Naruto's blood, and Naruto…well, Naruto made her uneasy.  Mostly it was his left eye.  It reminded her of some terrible animal's eye, and did not seem like it belonged anywhere on Naruto's face.  It made him look almost…inhuman.

            And Sasuke-kun…well she had no idea what Sasuke-kun wanted, now that he had found what he'd been looking for all this time.  She imagined that he probably wanted answers from Naruto.  Of course, she wanted some answers, too, but not with the same urgency.  Yes, urgency was the right word.  Sasuke-kun seemed to have some sort of unfinished business with Naruto, and he would not be satisfied until it was settled.

            She wondered if all boys were this impossible to understand, or if she'd just somehow been stuck with a particularly complex bunch.

            "Ah, Sakura-chan!"

            Sakura blinked and looked up.  Naruto was at the foot of the stairs in his pajamas, a cloak wrapped around his shoulders.  Even in the gloom, she could see that he was paler than normal, and that dark rings were forming under his eyes.

            "Naruto.  You look tired."

            He shook his head and sat down at the table, helping himself to some leftovers.  "Just hungry.  You came down for scraps too, eh?"

            "Scraps?"

            Naruto grinned.  "The innkeeper leaves it out for me, since he knows I have a habit of eating at all times of the day."

            "Oh," Sakura said, suddenly feeling guilty for eating the food.  Naruto dismissively, as if to say that there was plenty to go around.  He'd gotten more perceptive than she remembered.  But then, people grow and changed, don't they?  Well, everyone but her apparently.  She was still stuck at the same stage of development, nursing the same infatuation—or was it love?  It _is love, isn't it?  Isn't it?_

            "Naruto, you guys have changed so much," she said finally.  Naruto looked at her with a mouthful of food.

            "Hm?"  He chewed thoughtfully and swallowed.  "How so?"

            "You've all just grown!  You and Sasuke-kun and even Lee-san.  You know he had surgery and now he's almost completely recovered from his last fight.  Pretty soon he'll be back to his old self.  No, probably even better than he was."

            "That's great!  The fuzzy-eyebrows deserves to be a shinobi.  Out of all of us, he deserves it the most."

            "I know, but—"

            "But?"

            "But I'm standing still.  I don't know why this is.  I try so hard, but no matter how hard I try, I can't try as hard as you guys do.  I don't know how you guys do it; how you can just _push yourself farther than you can go.  Why do you do it?  Why do boys try so hard?  Can't you just be happy?  Can't you just be __satisfied with what you have?"_

            Naruto looked at her blankly.

            "Sasuke-kun…he's not happy.  I think he'll never be happy.  No matter what I do or how hard I try, I can't get him to love me.  I can't get him to be satisfied with just being with me.  I just—I just don't understand why you have to try so hard!"

            Naruto smiled at her softly in the gloom and scratched his head.  "Sasuke is Sasuke.  I don't think anyone really understands him but him.  But as for why we try so hard…hum…well I guess we do it so that we can become men."

            "Become men?"  Sakura repeated the phrase, feeling its awkwardness on her tongue.  She'd never thought about it before.

            "Well, yeah.  Cause that's what it means to grow up, right?  You can just wait for the years to pass you by and say 'Oh, now I'm grown up'.  You have to work for it and push yourself there.  We all do it so that we can become men, good men.  Men that our fathers would be proud of."

            Naruto sighed, his face looking tired and drawn.

            "And what about girls?"

            "What about you?"

            "How do girls become women?"

            Naruto gave her another one of his trademark blank looks.  "Sakura-chan…I'm not a girl.  Although I suppose you'd do it the same way, right?  I mean there shouldn't be any difference except, I dunno, maybe a few weird hormone and hygiene things."

            She burst out laughing at the confused and embarrassed look on his face as he said the last phrase.  She didn't realize that she'd been crying until she started to laugh and felt her skin tingle with the drying tears.

            "Thank you, Naruto."

            "Oh, it's no problem," Naruto said graciously.  "He leaves plenty of food out every night.  I can never finish it all anyway."

            "I wasn't talking about that."

            Naruto scratched his head again, and Sakura wondered if he was really as dumb as he looked, or if he was just pretending.  "Um…you're welcome I guess."

            He could not sleep.  He laid awake and watched the shadows on the walls and ceilings instead.  Finally, he'd caught up.  Finally, he could finish everything and be free.  Of course, Naruto would not understand why his disappearance to Sasuke was so important.  Naruto was just that kind of a selfish guy, that he would disappear without regards to anyone's feelings.

            He had not even stopped to think about what his disappearance meant to Sasuke, what kind of _burden_ it imposed on him.  For three years, he had not been able to live in peace, thinking of the debt that he owed to Naruto.  Naruto had saved his life.  _That Naruto had saved __his life.  _

            As if that wasn't bad enough, Naruto had saved his life and then _left_.  He'd left before Sasuke could ask him why he did it, or yell at him for sticking his nose in other people's business.  More importantly, he'd left before Sasuke had a chance to save his life back.  He'd left the village and left Sasuke with a life debt on his shoulders, so that no matter what Sasuke did, all he could think was: I am doing this because of Naruto.  I am here because he saved me.

            Owing such a debt to anyone—and most unforgivably, to Naruto of all people—drove him crazy.  He prided himself on his ability to survive on his own without anyone's help, and yet now, he owed someone such a great debt that it was almost impossible to pay back.  He felt cheated and swindled, like he'd someone been tricked into owing Naruto his life.  Now Naruto would hold that over his head forever, and Sasuke would be kept under his heel as the teammate who needed saving, the one who could not hold his own.

            Of course, now that he'd found Naruto things would be easier.  All he had to do was drag Naruto back to Konoha and save his life, and then they would be even and things would be squared off.  Seeing as how Naruto was a wanted man now, his life was probably in constant danger, so there'd be plenty of possibilities to save his life.

            Before he could pursue Itachi properly, he had to make sure he paid Naruto this debt back.  If he died by Itachi's hand with this debt on his shoulders, he would be in Naruto's debt for all of eternity.  Then again, he also had to make sure he didn't die saving Naruto.  He still had to a goal to pursue; he had to save his life to go after Itachi.

            All these complications were, as usual, all Naruto's fault.

            Sasuke sighed and turned over in his bed.  He'd wasted three years of his life searching for Naruto, three years during which the gap between him and Itachi had gotten even farther.  Somehow, it felt as if most of his life had been wasted time, time spend in waiting and wanting, searching for a goal that remained elusive.  What he wanted most now was some closure in whatever way he could find it.  He needed some relief from the constant yearning and a part of him feared that this desire for relief was making him weaker by the day.

            There was a fear growing in him that was greater than the fear of owing Naruto his life or never being able to catch up to Itachi.  What he feared most was what he felt threatened him the most: that one day his anger would fade and he would be left with nothing.

*-*-*

            "I'm surprised you're not late," Tsunade said with a smirk.  She gestured to a chair.

            Kakashi sat down and shrugged.  "I'm not late for important things.  This is an important thing, isn't it?"

            "I should think so.  A certain little brat has been found.  Your students found him in a northern village," Tsunade picked up a slip of paper from the table, where a small bird was perched.

            "Ah, that's Sakura's pigeon isn't it?"

            "You don't sound surprise at all."

            "I'm not.  Why should I be?"  Kakashi leaned back on the chair and even through the face mask, Tsunade thought she could detect a faint smirk.  "If anyone could find Naruto, it would be those two.  After all, they are san-nin de hitotsu."

            "So you say."

            "You doubt them?"

            Tsunade shrugged, "Not so much doubt.  It's just an acknowledgement that people change.  It's one thing to be as one when you're together as a team of lowly genin, but power changes people.  People grow.  People change."

            Kakashi shrugged, "Well, we'll see soon."

            "Good," Tsunade said, folding her hands.  "That's a good way to look at it.  If everyone looked at it the same way as you, things would be easier.  Unfortunately…"

            "Unfortunately?"

            "Naruto's return will bring troubles, both from within and from outside the village.  Some people just don't want him around—even less so now that he's got that bounty on him."

            "And?"

            She leaned over the table and grinned at him, showing gleaming teeth.  "And those people will learn to shut up or deal with me.  However, the important thing is the threat from outside the village.  Once the other villages learn of Naruto's return, they'll attack the leaf to get him.  I'm prepared to issue a declaration of war against any village that allows its ninja to invade ours."

            "Hmm, that's good," Kakashi said through half-lidded eyes.  "It'll discourage all out hunting, so they'll have to resort to espionage subtler, individual methods.  We can pick them off easier that way, especially when they're on our turf."

            "Exactly.  You and the others must be prepared for this situation."

            "We always are."

            "Well, we're thinking quite far.  What worries me now is what will happen on the way here.  Word travels fast you know.  They're bound to get ambushed on the way to Konoha."

            "I'll send a welcoming committee."

            Tsunade shook her head, "No good.  Having a dozen jounins run out to welcome Naruto would be like waving a red flag and announcing our intentions.  Besides, we're overbooked for missions as it is."

            Kakashi ran his hand through his unruly hair, "Ahh, actually I was thinking of something a little different."

            "Oh?"

            Kakashi grinned.  "Well Naruto would probably rather see his friends than a bunch of us old geezers."

            "You mean…"

            "Is there a problem?  Most of them aren't on any important missions, are they?"

            Tsunade shook her head, "No, that's a fine idea.  I'll leave it up to you guys to organize it then."

            Kakashi stood up and stretched, turning towards the door.  "Well, it's about time that we finally get some excitement back in Konoha.  It's been so boring these last few years."

            Tsunade shook her head and chuckled, "Peace doesn't become you, does it?"

            Kakashi shrugged, "Some people are destined for a life of turmoil."

            "You're not talking about yourself, are you?"

            "I don't know.  Am I?"

            Tsunade shook her head and waved Kakashi off dismissively.  He left and closed the door behind him.  Tsunade looked up at the Fourth's picture on the wall and sighed.  "You sure know how to pick the weird ones."

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Sorry it took so long to update, but I've been running into busy schedules and computer problems, so I haven't had much time.  Now to clear up a few points:

- I am aware that Jiraiya has not shown up.  I haven't forgotten about him, don't worry.  ^^  Be patient.

- No, I am not implying that Naruto can actually make chakra into bricks.  The bricks are merely a visualization of his chakra.  He imagines chakra as bricks in his mind to help him create a mental chakra shield against Kyubi.  Since Kyubi resides in Naruto, any chakra that Kyubi releases is also controlled by Naruto's mind.  Or at least in theory.  Whether or not Naruto can maintain control of his own chakra is dependent on him.

- _How often will you update this thing, anyway??_  Depends on how busy I am, but currently, I think we're looking at once every 2-3 weeks.


	5. Taming the Beast

Chapter Five:  Taming the Beast

Sometimes he dreams of dreaming:

_He is running leisurely across a vast desert, his paws digging into the pale sand and leaving craters that will resist the wind's cleaning efforts for months to come.  Without effort, he is crossing the suicidal breadth of the largest desert on the planet; beneath his paws, the sand passes by like water in a fast-flowing current._

_Soon he reaches the outskirts of the desert, where the vast sea of sand gives way to scraggly undergrowth and stubborn brown patches of grass.  Before long he has arrived at the edge of the village._

_To him, they are not much more than ants with clever and elaborate facial muscles.  Even now, they gaped at him, horrified, as he bounds over their village.  From below, they stared up at him in a rictus of horrified fascination as the shadow of death eclipses their village.  He clears the village in a single bound, one of his nine tails brushing slightly against something.  He continues on, his mind not registering the destruction left in his wake._

_He is aware of a growing hunger in him, a savage thirst that resonates both in his throat and his fangs.  He wanted to feel something—something struggling!—between his teeth.  Occasionally he would go into the forests or into a village to hunt for large animals or humans.  He did not particularly like humans; they were weak and did not put up a fight, hardly worth his attention._

_That was before he discovered the shinobi villages.  If regular human were mere ants, then surely the shinobi would be fire ants.  They were still pathetic, but much more entertaining than regular humans.  For one, they actually thought they could win against him.  That amusement alone was worth the effort for him._

_In the second village he raided, one of the shinobi conjured up a youma.  He did not know what surprised him more: the fact that a human could have the capacity to conjure a youma, or the fact that any of his kind would willingly be subject to the rule of a mere human.  In his disgust, he destroyed the youma and the entire village without much toying around.  As to be expected from such a pathetic creature, the youma died without putting up much of a fight._

_Eventually he found that human-controlled youma were more abundant than he realized.  In every village he visited afterwards, there were at least a couple of shinobi who controlled youma.  Soon it became his habit to seek out these youma; he enjoyed the taste of their blood spurting in his mouth, the waning struggle as life left their bodies._

_They had no chance.  They were pathetic creatures, gods that wallowed in the mud of humankind.  Creatures such as they could never compete with him, a free and pureblood youma who would never be controlled by any human—_

_Until…___

_Until a certain blond brat showed his face.__  First the blond brat who proclaimed himself Hokage, now a blond brat who says he'll become Hokage.  Maybe they are the same person.  If he killed the one, wouldn't the other die as well?_

_But wait…the other was already dead.  Well, if so, why isn't this one dead as well?  Not one after all, but two…two brats.  But they might as well be one.  Cut one and the other will bleed as well; the blood that flows is the same after all.  Hurt one and the other will die a thousand times over._

_Kill one…_

Naruto woke up gasping, his body covered in cold sweat.  He licked his dry lips and ran his hands over his face, making sure that it was the same as he remembered it.  He flexed his fingers experimentally, feeling strangely detached from the motion.  Somehow, he felt less than human.

He'd been dreaming again.  He could not remember what the dream was about, only that dreams like these always made him feel scared and uneasy upon waking up.  He'd been having them more and more often since the incident three years ago, but his mind cowered away from that subject, refusing to attach the two issues.

Naruto got out of bed, his sore muscles protesting.  He felt tiredness seeping all the way into his marrow.  If Jiraiya were here, he'd be in big trouble for using so much chakra.  If Jiraiya were here—Naruto pushed the thought away.  The old man _wasn't_ here, so there was no point thinking about it.

What was important now was that he did not drain himself any more than necessary by using chakra.  Kyubi seemed to have calmed down, so perhaps he didn't need to keep up the chakra barrier anymore.  In any case, if things kept up like this, he wouldn't last more than another day before collapsing.  If Jiraiya were here he could trust himself to sleep and replenish his energy, but Jiraiya _wasn't_ here and he had to be on guard at all time against an attack.

His position had already been discovered, so chances were that word was already spreading.  If prior experience could be trusted, he'd probably be attacked three or four times today.  Naruto sighed inwardly.  It was already a bother fending off bounty hunters, but now he had to think of Sasuke and Sakura as well.  Having friends sure was a burden.

But still better than none at all, he thought to himself.

A polite knock sounded at the door, "Naruto?  Are you awake?  It's almost noon already.  Come out and have some lunch, sleepy-head!"

"Lunch?  Wah, you guys have food out already?"  Naruto jumped out of bed and flung the door open, "Good morning, Sakura-chaaaaan!"

Sakura sighed and pulled him back as Naruto rushed out the door, "Oi, oi, at least wash your face and brush your teeth first before you come down."

Naruto looked at her blearily, "Why bother?"

"Eww, Naruto!"  Sakura made a face and pushed Naruto towards the bathroom.  "Is this what you've been living like?  I would have expected better from Jiraiya-san."

"Why?"  Naruto asked, puzzled.  He stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the tap water, dunking his head into the water filling the sink.  He gasped and rose from the water, shaking his head and spraying water from his wet hair like a dog.  He tied the wet strands back into a ponytail with a leather thong.  "Why would you expect _anything_ from that old pervert?  I sure don't."

Sakura looked at the dripping Naruto with amusement and had to admit that he had a point.  "Ne…where is Jiraiya-san anyway?  I thought he was supposed to be raising you."

"_Raising_ me?  HAH!  I'm the one raising _him!_"  Naruto shrugged, a dark expression covering his face.  "Anyway…he's gone."

"Gone?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded and proceeded to fill his toothbrush with excessive toothpaste.  "He's gone to a better place.  I wouldn't wait around for him, if ya know what I mean."

"A better place?  You mean…?"  Sakura stared at Naruto, shocked.  The boy shrugged again, obviously not wanting to talk about it, and proceeded to viciously attack his teeth and gums with the toothpaste.

"I can't believe it…" Sakura said softly.  "I mean Jiraiya-san of all people.  I never thought that he…that he could…well…"

Naruto rinsed and spat with obvious disgust.  "Why the hell wouldn't you?  He's obviously that kind of man!  He just left without a thought of how it would affect me!  I'm glad he's gone.  He better not come back or else I'll kick him right back where he came from again!"

"Naruto!"  Sakura did not know what to say to the boy.  Naruto was obviously grieving over Jiraiya-san's death, and like the boy she knew him to be, he was masking it with anger.  He'd been with Jiraiya for three years.  The man was as close as anyone had ever gotten to being a father to Naruto.  Losing him must have been a painful ordeal.  "I'm sorry, Naruto."

Naruto shrugged again, looking confused and embarrassed.  "There's no reason to be.  I mean…it's not like it's your fault he's like that.  Let's go eat."

Naruto bounded happily out of the bathroom and down the stairs with a pensive Sakura in tow.

"Morning, idiot," Sasuke greeted Naruto as the other boy came down the stairs.

"Morning, jackass."  Naruto yawned and sniffed theatrically at the food on the table.  He surveyed the surrounding, noted the blood splashed on the floor and the sight of four shinobi gagged and bound on the floor.  Sasuke was using one of them as a chair.  Naruto tilted his head to the side and said with deliberate nonchalance, "Something seems different."

"Ah.  I decided to change the décor," Sasuke said and rapped his knuckles against his "chair's" skull.

Naruto sat down on one of the other shinobi, ignoring the groan that issued from the man.  He bounced up and down a few times until the man silenced.  "You have awful taste."

Sakura joined them at the table, rolling her eyes at the boy's game.  She nudged her chair out of the way and replaced it with a real wooden chair.  "Honestly boys, it's a little early in the morning for this."

"Che.  It would have been earlier if _somebody_ hadn't slept in all day."

Naruto shouted something indignant at Sasuke, but due to the mouthful of food he was currently working on, it came out as nothing more than an indignant spray of soba noodles.  Sasuke held up a napkin to deflect as much of the half-chewed projectile as he could.

"Naruto has a point there, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, trying to keep a straight face.  When was the last time she'd made a joke like that?

Even Sasuke looked like he was trying with all of his might to viciously slaughter the smile tugging at the corner of his lips.  "Well whatever," he said.  "I would have preferred we leave bright and early in the morning, that's all."

Naruto slurped a noodle noisily.  "Ah, you guys are leaving?  That's too bad.  I was going to take you to this great yakitori restaurant in the next town."

Sakura sighed.  "We can get yakitori anywhere, Naruto.  We can all go once we get back to the Leaf Village."

Naruto nodded.  "Yeah, I guess you guys can get yakitori whenever you want.  Well, have a good trip."

Sasuke exchanged a glance with Sakura.  Was Naruto being deliberately obtuse, or did he really not realize their intentions?

"Ne, Naruto…"  Sakura began slowly.  "You're coming with us…aren't you?"

Naruto looked up at her, his face blank.  "Am I?

"Of course you are!" Sasuke shouted, standing up.  "What kind of question is that?"

"Anou sa, anou sa…"  Naruto said with perfect innocence, his eyes as cold as the snow that fell outside.  "I never said I was going anywhere."

Sasuke sputtered indignantly, trying unsuccessfully to form a coherent sentence through his anger.  "W-Well what the hell _are_ you going to do?  We've finally found you, so of _course_ you're going to come home with us?  What else are you going to do out here all by yourself?"

"Oi, Sasuke," Naruto said, a smile playing across his lips.  "I was the one who decided to leave of my own accord.  It's not like I got lost.  I wasn't waiting around for you guys to _find_ me."

"You…you arrogant…you…DOBE!"  Sasuke sat down heavily, much to the distress of the man beneath him.  He stood up again, pounded his fist against the table, and shouted.  "I don't care.  You're coming home with us."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto rose from his chair and leaned across the table, eyes begging for a fight.  "You gonna _make_ me??"

"Boys…"  Sakura began nervously.  It was bad enough that her two teammates were arguing like seven year olds, but these two mad seven year olds had enough power between them to destroy an entire village, and being between them was definitely not a good place to be.  "Let's calm down…"

"I've been living on my own for three years now, no thanks to you, so don't you tell me what I can and can't do!"

"Living by yourself?  Living by yourself?  HAH!  If I hadn't been around, these guys would've skinned you in your sleep and you wouldn't have had any idea!"

Naruto winced at Sasuke's words.  It was true that he had not detected the shinobi.  He'd used up so much chakra the day before that his defense was crumbling.  Still, the accusation hurt.  "You're one to talk, Sasuke.  If I remember correctly, you were the one whose life needed saving!"

Sasuke flinched, his face twisting into an expression of pure venom.  "I never _asked_ you!"

"Yeah?  Well I ain't asking you now either, so BUTT OUT!"

"The both of you, just—_Sasuke__-kun!"_

White energy crackled in Sasuke's palm as the sound of a thousand birds filled the air like a chorus of harbingers.  Naruto's eyes widened as Sasuke dashed at him with surprising speed.  He tried to move, but his muscles would not react fast enough and the next thing he registered was Sasuke's body crashing into his, pushing him back against the wall.

Sasuke brought his hand down and forward in a savage thrust.  Naruto closed his eyes in the last second, preparing himself.

_I didn't sense it.  Not until now.  I did not sense a thing._

Sasuke's Chidori broke the wall behind him, spraying plaster onto Naruto's face and hair.  The spray of plaster left minute cuts on his cheek, which healed almost as soon as they formed.  He doubted it would heal in the same way if his eyes had been destroyed.

Behind them, the shinobi impaled on Sasuke's hand gurgled wetly and fell to his knees.  Sasuke eyed him coldly and twisted his hand free of the man's rib cage.  "Excuse me; we were in the middle of a _conversation_."

Sakura collapsed to her knees, relief flooding her.  Damn those boys!  Why did they always insist on being so overly dramatic?  For a second there, she was sure that Sasuke was going to kill Naruto.  And what was up with Naruto anyway?  He was totally different from the way he was yesterday.  He seemed more like the old, clumsy Naruto that she was used to.

Sasuke shifted his gaze from the man dying in the adjacent room to Naruto.  "You were saying?"

Naruto tried his best to look at Sasuke with disdain.  "I coulda done that."

"If we leave now, you'll be dead before the day is over.  I don't know what's up with you, but the fact is that there are people out there hunting you, and you're in no condition to fight them.  Come back with us to Konoha; the whole village can protect you there."

"I'm not going back to Konoha," Naruto said firmly.

"Why?" Sasuke and Sakura demanded in unison.

Naruto looked away from them, embarrassed to be saying such an emotional thing out loud.  "Well…there are people there.  People that I care about.  All my friends are there; Iruka and Kakashi-sensei are there; Konohamaru is there; that baba is there; you guys are there.  Everyone I love is there.  If I go back to Konohamaru, I'll be putting everyone in danger.  It's enough that I'm being hunted.  I don't want the whole village to be under attack."

"Naruto no baka!"  Sakura exclaimed.  "It's precisely because the people you love are there that you _must_ go back.  You're going to be the next Hokage, remember?  You've got to come back and protect the people you love!"

"Protect them from what?  The only thing I can protect them from is myself."

Sasuke made a disgusted sound and sneered at him.  "Coward.  You're just making an excuse to run away."

Naruto turned on him, furious.  "What the hell would _you _know, Sasuke?"

"Of course I would know!"  Sasuke spat back.  "I tried to run away once, too.  But somebody told me a coward and came to drag me back.  I can't believe you'd go back on your own words now.  But then I guess I shouldn't have expected much from you.  After all, we're not the same."

"Sasuke…" Naruto finally hissed, his fists clenched at his side.

"Hm?"

"When we arrive, I'm gonna have a fight with you in front of Kakashi-sensei so he'll know what an idiot he was for choosing to train you instead of me."

*-*-*

"Did you have to play with them?  We're on a time limit here."

Kisame shrugged and scooped up a handful of snow, letting it melt and wash away the blood on his hands.  "All work and no play, Itachi."

"We're getting closer.  I want to get there before he leaves."

"He should be in the next village.  The mist-nin are the best shinobi at reconnaissance and data-collection."

"That's what you said three villages ago.  And are you trying to praise yourself?"

Kisame grinned a toothy grin.  "I'll let the results speak for themselves."

Itachi shook his head.  "Your results can rarely breathe for themselves, never mind speak."

Kisame laughed.  "Oh, good memories, Itachi!  You always bring out the nostalgic side of me."

*-*-*

"Akamaru can't tell if it's a good plan by smell, Kiba," Shino said softly.  It was the most Kiba had heard him say all week.  He could never tell if that was a good or bad thing.

Kiba grabbed the scroll back from Akamaru and tucked it away in his shirt, "It couldn't hurt though.  Anyway, I'm not so sure about trusting Shikamaru's plan.  I mean, is this really going to work?  Why can we all just charge out and kick their asses?  Me and Akamaru can probably take 'em down."

"Anou, Shikamaru-kun has been chuunin longest so…so he probably has a good plan.  That is…it's only my opinion."

Kiba sighed theatrically, looking down at the forest below them.  He switched position on the tree branch.  "I guess you have a point, Hinata.  Shikamaru did a decent job when we were searching for Sasuke."

Hinata nodded as if relieved.

"Still," Kiba said, looking at that grounds that made up Konoha's northern border.  "I would have liked to be one of the guys in the back.  Cause y'know, the hero always fights last."

Akamaru barked as if assenting that he too was a ferocious warrior and deserved the glory of the last scene.  He quickly calmed down when Hinata's fingers found the back of his ears, and settled for scrambling into her lap for a nap.

"Well…I guess we'll just have to kick all their asses and not save any for the others!"  Kiba announced with a grin.  

In that, as in many unexpected things, Team 8 was in total agreement.

*-*-*

By the time he arrived at the village, everyone was already dead.  The snow had covered up most of the blood, but he realized something was wrong the moment he stepped foot into the village and smelled the stench of blood.  The sense of _wrongness_, of residual pain and fear, lingered in the air like rotting death.

In the inn, he found several dead bodies and a hole in the wall.  That was probably the boy's work.  The dead cook and innkeeper in the kitchen—or rather, what was left of them—definitely was not.  

"Well," he said to himself grimly.  "Looks like vacation is over."

He took the rest of the day to bury as many of the villagers as he could.  Then he set out to find the boy.

TBC

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

1) Arg, I suck.  Yes, I know.  I haven't updated in forever and a day but…yeah, I suck.

2)  There was a question as to why Kyubi's presence in Naruto is getting stronger, when the manga/anime indicates that as time passes, Naruto should gain more control over Kyubi's chakra as their chakra merges. I thought I'd take a moment to speculate on Kyubi's bond with Naruto.  We know the 4th sealed Kyubi in Naruto's body.  Okay, what does that mean?  It means Kyubi's body/mind/soul/chakra is trapped inside of Naruto.  From the manga/anime we can see that although they are inhabiting one body, they're still two very separate entities.  As time passes, Naruto seems to be able to gain more control over Kyubi's chakra, but we have no reason to believe that he actually controls Kyubi as an entity.  After all, Naruto asks Kyubi to lend him some chakra so it's obvious they're two separate entities.  As time passes, Kyubi's chakra is also merging with Naruto's own, but again, we have no reason to believe that Kyubi's personality or mind is merging with Naruto (it'd be kinda disturbing if it that did happen).  The 3rd also goes out of his way to explain to Iruka that no matter what the villagers think, Naruto is _not_ the Kyubi, so we see again that Kyubi and Naruto are seen as two separate entities.  

My point is this: Kyubi is and has always been a separate entity within Naruto's mind.  During Naruto's training with Jiraiya, we see that Naruto is able to communicate with Kyubi, so he can voluntarily weaken the mental barrier between himself and Kyubi.  What if (like in this fic) Naruto deliberately weakens the barrier between him and Kyubi so that he can better access Kyubi's chakra?  The 4th's seal is not weakened in any way.  Kyubi is still trapped within Naruto; they are just able to communicate chakra/thoughts more easily.  I hope that was coherent and didn't just come out as rambling.

3) About Jiraiya: um…don't jump to conclusions.  ^^  I won't say more than that.

4)  Naruto actually will not die shielding himself from Kyubi.  I mean…not unless he stupidly forces himself to use up ALL his chakra, which would be nigh impossible since after a while he'll have to pass out from exhaustion.  The point is, the chakra barrier is just that: a barrier that drains his chakra.  It'll make him tired and wear him out, but most likely will not kill him unless he does something _really_ dumb.  Kyubi _says_ it'll kill him because it's Kyubi and Kyubi doesn't want to be shielded.  Heh Kyubi's not to be trusted.

5) Exactly what is a youma?  The manga/anime called Kyubi a youma, which is a demon (the nine tail kitsune is a popular representation of a powerful demon in Asian culture).  There's no mention of whether GamaBunta or any of the summoned animals are also youma, but for the purposes of this story I am going to say that they are.  Also note that the term demon/youma here is neutral.  A demon is simply an animal imbued with a soul and, in most cases, some special power.

6) Edited: I apologize to everyone who read the first draft of this.  FFnet took out all my spacing between scenes, so it might have been a little confusing for everyone who read it the first time.  I've added in *-*-* now to separate the scenes.


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